Apache Creek, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Apache Creek, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Apache Creek lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Apache Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Apache Creek — the short answer
Apache Creek, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 146 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~146
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Apache Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Apache Creek's 146-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Apache Creek
Each reading below is measured for Apache Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredApache Creek runs about 146 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredApache Creek sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Apache Creek is in
Apache Creek sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Apache Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Catron County.
What Grows in Apache Creek
Every plant below cleared Apache Creek's own zone 6a and its 146-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Apache Creek?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Apache Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Apache Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SQUARE DEAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- 04S.16W.28.211Nitrate · 7.9 mi
- 04S.16W.17.244Nitrate · 8.6 mi
Measured from Apache Creek's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Apache Creek.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Apache Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Apache Creek
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Apache Creek average
Your land is one point inside Apache Creek
Everything above resolves to Apache Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Apache Creek Average
Apache Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Apache Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Apache Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Apache Creek's scale: May 21 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Apache Creek's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Apache Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Apache Creek, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Apache Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Apache Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Apache Creek average
How we know this about Apache Creek
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Apache Creek’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Apache Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Apache Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Apache Creek typically lands around May 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Jun 11.
When is the first frost in Apache Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Apache Creek typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 146 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Apache Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Apache Creek sees about 146 frost-free days — roughly May 21 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 11 to Sep 30, about 111 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Apache Creek?
The federal record around Apache Creek is light — 5 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (4), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.9 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Apache Creek?
With about 146 frost-free days between hard freezes, Apache Creek rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 174 to 202 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 21 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Apache Creek's scale — its 6a band and its 146-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Apache Creek's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Apache Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Apache Creek's own scale — its own ~146-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,249 acres it covers and 5 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Apache Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Apache Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 21 and Oct 14 and the ~146-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Apache Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Apache Creek's boundary and the 5,249 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~146-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Apache Creek's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Apache Creek's 5,249 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Catron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Catron County
- The growing challenges every New Mexico grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Mexico
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Catron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Apache Creek's 5,249 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Apache Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,249 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.9 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Apache Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoApache Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides